How to Practically Assess Burnout
Lessons from Herbert Freudenberg
It was a job that paid no bills and put no food on the table. It was volunteer work; It was a position at the Free Clinic. And that job took a toll on him. It was a commitment that he put a great deal of himself into.
“You demand this of yourself. The staff demands it of you, and the people you are serving demand it of you. The whole atmosphere builds up to it, until you finally find yourself, as I did, in a state of exhaustion.” — Herbert Freudenberger, 1973
Freudenberger was one of the pioneers in research into burnout. And this aspect of his work life — The Free Clinic — is a great example of work conditions that can cause burnout. But how? Let’s answer that question.
I want to present to you a more practical way to assess burnout. And while its purpose is to specifically assess job burnout, it can still be used on a personal level, albeit loosely. After all, this is a thing you can experience in your relationships outside of work.
Typically, burnout is characterized by physical and mental exhaustion [2], and while those are relevant aspects, they don’t paint a full picture. As the research developed, psychologists have discovered that you don’t feel burned out merely from overwork; it can also be caused by a myriad of things that can be just as important, starting off with…
1 — Reward
When we think of reward, we think of paychecks and raises. But we forget about social rewards such as recognition, the lack of which can be detrimental because it can indicate inefficacy.
2 — Control
Control in this context relates to autonomy; do you get to do certain things your way? Are you trusted to put your own spin on things? Or are you just a machine following orders? unfortunately, this is the reality of many jobs.
3 — Community
We’re social beings. That’s no secret. As such, if you struggle to find common ground with your peers and colleagues; if you have unresolved conflicts, and if you don’t align with the politics in the workplace, then you’re more likely to feel out of place, without anyone to reach out to or rely on.
4 — Fairness
Literature on fairness relates to equity and social justice; do you feel like the systems present treat everyone fairly? Or do you feel as if there are unjust things outside of your control at play?
5 — Values
These are the ideals and long-term goals that attracted you to the job; the cause that you believe to be serving by doing this. Is it important to you? If not, then there will be a fundamental disconnect between you and your work. It’ll be even worse if you’re against the ideals of the workplace.
I personally didn’t think this would be a problem for most people — money is money as long as it’s not made through immoral means, right? — but it’s actually more significant than I thought.
And lastly,
6 — Workload
Perhaps the simplest of the bunch, but by no means any less important. It’s the one thing we can all somewhat reliably assess; resources vs demand. Do you have the time and energy to manage everything, or is it just too much?
This seems to be the most significant component of burnout [3]
It’s easy to see how these measures apply to our everyday lives. 3 of which ring a bell that calls me back to one job I had in 2019.
It was work at a print shop that had just opened up. We provided a lot of services besides just printing stuff, such as translation (Eng to Arabic and vice-versa), making PowerPoint presentations on outdated software, and retyping hand-written papers for print. And since I was the only one who could do most of those things, a lot of the workload was on me.
The pay was low, and even though I could blend in well with the social environment, there was still a disconnect that both my coworkers and I felt.
One day I was working 3 hours past my shift, shoulders tense, halfway done with a long paper, and I couldn’t keep going. I quit right on the spot. I thought I didn’t have it in me to tough it out, but in retrospect, I couldn’t be blamed for my mental state.
The way Freudenberger described work at the clinic paints an interesting picture. One quote, in particular, stands out to me.
“be prepared to work long hours for no pay” (1973b, p. 61).
It seems there was no extrinsic reward. Don’t forget, however, we’ve established that intrinsic reward is also important. But given the fact that this work was something demanded of him, that kind of reward may have been absent as well. Remember the quote from earlier: “The staff demands it of you, and the people you are serving demand it of you.” It was an expectation to be met; It was the norm.
Now we have a clearer perspective on how Freudenberger’s work at the Free Clinic made him feel burned-out; through excessive workload and lack of reward of any kind.
Unfortunately, assessing burnout is often the easy part, and providing ways to alleviate it is beyond the scope of this piece since a lot of it is context-sensitive. There’s no one way to solve any of these issues. But there’s most definitely room for progress. The obvious things help (managing workload and stress, taking breaks, and having some conversations with your peers.)
There needs to be some kind of team effort, be it at work or home. One person may not be able to make changes that are meaningful enough. As Christiana Maslach put it in an interview: “…burnout in that sense is like the canary in the coal mine. If the canary’s having problems operating in the coal mine, it’s not that something is wrong with the Canary; that it’s not tough enough. Rather it’s the toxic fumes which serve as a signal that something needs to be fixed before everybody else goes into the mine.” [4]
A good portion of this article was inspired by Maslach’s work. I highly recommend you check some of it out.
Thank you for reading.
